Pete Townsend to be Placed on Sex Offender Registry

Pete Townsend, lead guitarist for the Who, has resolved his legal difficulties arising from his arrest on child porn charges this past January. He will receive a "caution" and be listed in the sex offender registry for five years.

British authorities concede Townsend cooperated in the investigation against him, and that he did not download any material from the website he accessed. Townsend said he accessed the site while doing research--he believes he was sexually abused as a child.

"I accept that I was wrong to access this site, and that by doing so, I broke the law, and I have accepted the caution that the police have given me," Townshend said in a statement.

We don't see the value to labeling Townsend a sex offender. But it's better than facing criminal charges and jail, so we certainly understood why he agreed to it.